Modern Art is Bull

Molly, the Bull-Cow

One of our Dexter cows, Molly seems to think that she is a Bull, and has even begun to look a little like one.
One of our policies is to allow animals of character or outstanding service to live out their natural lives to the best possible extent.

Whilst some may see this as a sentimental idea, those who are interested in animal behaviour will find much to be gained from this practise. We also see some of the oddities which nature can produce in animals which would normally have been culled.

Dock Beetles

The Dock-Plant/weed, friend to those just stung by a nettle and enemy to anyone trying to graze land or make grass crops. There are traditional chemical or mechanical methods to deal with them and we use the mechanical method of control; “topping”.

We are also now observing a naturally occurring biological control; the aptly named “dock-beetle” or Gastrophysa viridula.

Silk Covered Dung

The cattle barns are mucked out completely several times during the winter and the dung stacked on an outside dung store along with around a tractor bucket or two per day of daily cleanings. After the cows are turned out there is often not enough room to muck out the barns until the first load has been spread and so the muck in the barns is turned and stacked inside the barns.

In 2009 a unusual thing happened; the dung was completely covered in cobwebs from some very busy spiders.

Tiny, A very small Dexter

Hay Making 07

Making hay is a time generally associated with hot sunny weather, not this year. This year hay making is being thwarted by unseasonably high rain fall and for the first time whilst farming here an entire field of grass was lost to wet weather.